Evacuees Moved to Tent City

Workers carry box lunches to displaced residents in a tent city set up in the parking lot of Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, N.J.
Bill Denver for The Wall Street Journal

By

Christopher Weaver And

Jennifer Maloney

Updated Nov. 8, 2012 2:19 p.m. ET

OCEANPORT, N.J.—Hundreds of storm evacuees from shelters in this suburban area were relocated to a tent city on Wednesday at Monmouth Park Racetrack even as a powerful nor'easter moved into the area, snarling commutes and threatening a fragile region already bowed by Sandy.

The winter-weather system moving to the Northeast prompted familiar warnings Tuesday. Eric Holthaus reports on The News Hub. Plus, hundreds of storm evacuees from shelters in N.J. were relocated to a tent city as Aaron Rutkoff explains.

The move appeared to have been hastily organized just before snow fell. County and state officials gave differing accounts about who was responsible for the decision to move evacuees from Monmouth University to the facility. It had been erected to house out-of-state utility workers.

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"Owners of the original shelters told us they needed to go back to normal business," said Anne Marie Borrego, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross, which is running the state facility.

The confusion illustrated the larger—and for many, frustrating—complexities still facing New York and New Jersey some 10 days after superstorm Sandy wiped out coastlines and stranded thousands. More than 623,000 customers were still without power on Wednesday, and authorities have been struggling to patch together temporary housing.

The nor'easter brought new challenges. High winds and a messy mix of sleet and snow could erase progress, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said. "I could see us actually moving backwards," he said. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo fired Steven Kuhr, the director of the state's emergency management office. Mr. Kuhr, who couldn't be reached for comment, allegedly had asked local authorities to remove a felled tree from his Long Island home after the superstorm, according to an administration official.

In New York City Wednesday, police and volunteers went door-to-door in coastal neighborhoods urging residents to get to a higher, warmer place. Additional ambulances and special task forces were positioned near flood-prone areas and outfitted with small inflatable boats, pumps and chainsaws, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

As snow collected on the ground, high winds disrupted commuter trains and slowed traffic around the evening commute. And it was unclear how long people could expect to be sheltered in tents in New Jersey. Paramedics on the scene Wednesday said they expected to be at the site at least through Friday.

According to a Monmouth County spokeswoman, 58 evacuees arrived at the racetrack Wednesday in a convoy of buses from nearby Monmouth University, the location of the area's largest shelter for those unable to return to homes left uninhabitable by Sandy. The university resumed classes Wednesday.

Other evacuees came from other shelters around Monmouth County, displaced from storm-ravaged communities on Raritan Bay and the northern shoreline. Many appeared to be elderly or disabled, using wheelchairs or walkers to get around the camp site as the earliest arrivals trickled in around midday.

A reporter who visited the camp Wednesday was asked to leave. The camp consists of 20 large tents, each bolted to the pavement of the racetrack's parking lot. Contractors working on the site said the tents could survive high winds. Each tent is powered by electrical generators and heated, but on Wednesday morning heavy winds shook their entry flaps, letting in cold air inside.

The only restrooms in the tent city at midday Wednesday were rows of portable toilets standing in the mud. One tent housed showers, but relief workers said they were concerned none of those facilities were accessible to residents in walkers and wheelchairs.

Later in the afternoon, the state brought in accessible showers from a similar camp in Linden, N.J., said Nicole Brossoie, a spokeswoman for New Jersey's Department of Human Services.

Ms. Brossoie took issue with the term "tent city." "We're referring to them as micro-cities, because that's what they are," she said.

They were erected as temporary camps for line men sent to New Jersey by out-of-state utility companies working under a mutual-aid pact. The camps at Monmouth Park and in Linden can house a total of up to 8,000 people, Ms. Brossoie said, adding that they feature amenities such as laundry facilities and food service stations.

The tents at Monmouth Park where housing nearly 750 workers from Alabama, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota and other states, according to Monmouth Park Racetrack, which is the leaseholder for the site and is allowing utilities and relief workers to use it free of charge. The Racetrack said in a statement Wednesday that it had been informed the state would begin housing displaced residents there.

Relief organizers from the Red Cross and employees of a private contractor running the encampment were told Tuesday night to expect up to 2,000 evacuees to begin arriving on Wednesday, according to three people familiar with situation.

ENLARGE

Workers prepare barriers to close Central Park as a new storm hit.
Richard Drew/Associated Press

Officials gave differing accounts of how that decision was made. Monmouth University, a private school, said it wasn't involved in the decision to move people from its shelter to the tent city.

Cynthia Scott, a spokeswoman for the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office, which had a hand in running the shelter at Monmouth University, said "the Red Cross and state have taken over." She said some disabled people and people with pets remained in the county's Brisbane shelter.

Ms. Brossoie, meanwhile, said the county and other local officials had been looking for a place to move evacuees and the state had offered to accommodate them. She said the evacuees would sleep in separate tents from the workers so they wouldn't be disturbed by workers returning from their shifts.

Ron Morano, a spokesman for Jersey Central Power & Light, said a utility that is operating a separate temporary housing facility at Monmouth Park site, said the utility also operates six other staging areas to accommodate out of town utility workers.

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